


The Side of the Angels

by nom de plume (p0stScriptum)



Category: Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-07
Updated: 2015-12-07
Packaged: 2018-05-04 19:10:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5345369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/p0stScriptum/pseuds/nom%20de%20plume
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Clary had a different best friend? A retelling of The Mortal Instruments.</p>
<p>Then Jace did something stupid. He grabbed the boy. Within an instant, the mundane had flipped Jace over his shoulder and pinned him to the ground.</p>
<p>“Got you,” the mundane hissed.</p>
<p>Jace stared up into those fierce gray eyes. <i>Yes, you really do.</i></p>
<p>“Listen to me.” The boy glared down at him. “I don’t know who or what you are, or why Clary can see you and I can’t, but if you hurt her I will find a way to hurt you.”</p>
<p>Jace believed him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. PREVIEW

**Author's Note:**

> This fanfic is set in an alternate universe, so I am exercising the right to do whatever I want with this story.

_"I may be on the side of the Angels, but don't think for one second that I am one of them."_ \- Sherlock Holmes

 

She found him sitting in a tree in the park, hidden from view of any passerby, lounging comfortably with all the grace of a lazy cat on one of the lower branches, his headphones on and his eyes closed. For any normal person, this sort of thing might have been weird, but Clary had long since grown accustomed to Matthew’s strange inclinations – such as his fancy for high places.

Clary also knew that he always kept the volume of his headphones low, so she knew he’d be able to hear when she said, “Get down here, dork. We’re going clubbing.”

He opened his eyes and stared down at her unconcernedly. “You’re awfully demanding today,” he replied drolly.

“Yeah. I’ve been feeling antsy. Don’t know why.” She pinned him with a glare. “Now come on. I’m not going to Pandemonium by myself. You’re the one always saying I shouldn’t do stupid teenager-y stuff on my own, so get your ass out of the tree and let’s go.”

Matthew shifted, sitting up fully so that he could lean against the tree trunk and stare down at her, eyebrow quirked, one leg dangling off the branch, and looking like he had no intention of getting out of the tree anytime soon. “As wonderful as it is that you’re finally taking my advice,” he drawled, “I don’t particularly feel like subjecting myself to spending the next couple of hours stuck in a crowded room full of sweaty clingy strangers and having my ears blasted with loud music. Not to mention, your wandering feet always manage to find themselves under mine.”

“That was once, Matt!” Clary protested.

“No, it was many times. But the first time you did it on purpose.”

Clary crossed her arms. “You were being difficult,” she muttered, knowing but not caring that she sounded petulant.

Clary heard Matthew huff. He murmured something too quietly for her to hear, but she thought it was probably something along the lines of “Look who’s being difficult now.” Nonetheless, he dropped from the tree a moment later and landed on his feet beside Clary, dark hair ruffled and gray eyes shining brightly.

“Let’s get this over with, then,” he said.

He made it sound like he was reluctant to go with her, but Clary knew better. She’d known him for the better part of seven long years, and she could tell when he was being serious and when he was teasing. Admittedly, it had taken a while to distinguish between the two, as Matthew was usually a very serious person and the only one he ever teased in this way was Clary, but she could tell the difference now. And really, Matthew didn’t mind all that much. He would go anywhere with her if she asked him to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I’ve recently gotten into the Shadowhunters book series and I have been yearning to write something set in Cassandra Clare’s amazing universe. I also like to make up my own characters and throw them into these amazing worlds with other amazing characters.  
> That said, this fanfic will probably not be for everyone. First of all, there’s most likely going to slash. If not slash, then it’s going to be heavy bromance. Secondly, I apologize to all Simon fans and Clace shippers. This is not a story for you, probably. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Simon, and I have nothing against Clace but for this story to go the way I wanted some things just needed to go.  
> I'm sorry, Simon.  
> And Clace.  
> And Sizzy.  
> But hey, at least Malec is safe…


	2. MUNDANE

The music hammered. Colored lights played over the dance floor, lighting the dark room with blues and acid greens, hot pinks and golds. Sweaty bodies crowded together, skimpily dressed in leather and silk, faces painted, hair dyed, skin pierced. Girls tossed their long hair, boys swung their leather-clad hips, couples made-out passionately, and people danced without shame.

It was Pandemonium.

Clary Fray couldn’t say why she liked the all-ages club. Maybe because it was the last place anyone would have expected her to be. It was so different, so bold. She enjoyed the thrill. Every time she stepped inside the club it was like entering a dream or someone else’s life.

“You could try dancing, you know,” she told Matthew, shouting over the loud music.

He gave her a baleful look that said “You wish” and continued keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings, glaring at the people who got too close. Matthew may not look very threatening at first but his glare was capable of stopping anyone in their tracks at least momentarily. Pandemonium wasn’t really his scene. Matthew would never be caught dead in a club like this if it wasn’t for Clary, but she resolutely believed that it was good for him to step out of his comfort zone every once in a while.

Clary rolled her eyes at Matthew’s stubborn behavior. “Come on!” She reached forward and tugged his hands free from his jean pockets. “Dance with me!”

Matthew let her swing his arms to the music. “You know I don’t dance,” he said. Nonetheless, he obediently moved with her, raising Clary’s hand above her head and giving her a twirl – a move that was far too classy for the club’s standards. That was Matthew, though. He was something of an old soul, often coming across as too well-mannered for his fifteen years. Clary wouldn’t have him any other way.

“See? Not so bad,” she teased.

He smiled indulgently, letting his fondness show. Clary had to look away, lest she stare too long at how the lights played across his face just right.

It was by chance that she spotted the blue-haired boy that had caught her interest earlier. He was making his way off the dance floor, a sort of lost look on his face. He was new to Pandemonium, she was sure. It would be so easy to go over to him and introduce herself, offer to show him around. He had this air about him, something that made Clary think he was shy like she was and maybe they’d hit it off, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if she –

The blue-haired boy straightened up, snapping to attention, and Clary noticed the beautiful dark-haired girl in the white dress. She looked like a fairytale princess and Clary sighed, watching the girl approach the blue-haired boy.

 _Well, that’s that I guess,_ she thought.

The blue-haired boy followed the beautiful girl, trailing after her like a love-sick puppy. He was too distracted to notice anything else. This would have been fine, but then Clary saw _them_. Two dark figures slinking through the crowd, attention fixed on the blue-haired boy. She didn’t know how she knew it, but she was certain that the dark-clothed boys were following the blue-haired boy, and the beautiful girl in the white dress was luring him into a trap.

Clary slowed her dancing and stared. Distantly, she was aware of Matthew asking her what was wrong. She ignored him.

The girl and the blue-haired boy disappeared into a room that was marked NO ADMITTANCE. That wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Clary had seen couples sneaking off to be alone before. But the fact that the two dark-clothed boys followed and paused outside the door was strange. She stood on her tip-toes, trying to see over the crowd. They were talking. One of the boys was blond, the other was dark-haired. The blond one reached into his jacket and withdrew something long and sharp.

Clary gasped. “Matt!”

“What is it?”

“Look! Do you see those guys?” She pointed wildly and almost hit a curvy dark-skinned girl who was dancing nearby. “Do you see those guys? By that door?”

He peered through the crowd, then shook his head.

“There are two of them,” she insisted. “They were following the guy with the blue hair. He went inside that room with a girl. They followed him, and the blond one just pulled a knife. I think they’re going to hurt him!”

Matthew stiffened at the mention of the knife. His eyes narrowed. “Clary, I don’t see anything.”

“But they’re right there, Matt! I’m serious.”

He looked at her, reading the urgency on her face. “Alright,” he said finally. “ _Stay here._ I’ll go get a security guard.”

Matthew disappeared into the crowd. Clary then turned back to look at the NO ADMITTANCE door just in time to see the blond boy slip inside the room with his friend close behind. She watched the door close, ominously, the feeling of apprehension tight in her chest. She knew that by the time Matthew got back with the security guard it might be too late.

_I have to do something._

*   *   *

It had been just another night, just another demon hunt. They’d trailed an Eidolon into the Pandemonium nightclub and from there Isabelle had taken the lead. Jace and Alec had held back as Isabelle successfully lured the demon toward its demise. They then followed her and the demon into the storage room, where she had the creature restrained with her whip.

Clearly, the thing hadn’t been expecting this turn of events when it followed Isabelle into the dark room. The demon had thought it was about to prey on some poor unsuspecting girl. How unfortunate for it that it fell into Isabelle’s clutches instead.

The usual questions were asked and Eidolon proceeded to play innocent.

Jace scoffed. “Come on now.” He held up his hands so that the demon could see his marks. “You know what I am.”

“Shadowhunter,” the demon hissed.

He grinned. “Got you.”

It snarled.

“So,” Jace continued brightly, crossing his arms, “you still haven’t told me if there are any other of your kind with you.”

The demon feigned ignorance. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“He means other demons,” Alec interjected. “You do know what a demon is, don’t you?”

The demon turned its face away stubbornly.

Well, if that was its game, Jace would play.

“Demons,” he drawled, tracing the word in the air with his finger. “Religiously defined as hell’s denizens, the servants of Satan, but understood here, for the purposes of the Clave, to be any malevolent spirit whose origin is outside our own home dimension–”

“That’s enough, Jace,” Isabelle snapped.

“Isabelle’s right,” Alec said. “Nobody here needs a lesson in semantics—or demonology.” He looked significantly at the demon.

Jace smiled cordially at the creature. “Isabelle and Alec think I talk too much. Do you think I talk too much?”

The demon recognized the veiled threat in his words. Finally, it opened its mouth. “I could give you information,” it offered. “I know where Valentine is.”

_This again._

Jace clamped down on his annoyance and glanced at Alec. “Valentine’s in the ground. The thing’s just toying with us.” It was toying with them, just like all the rest did – had to be.

Isabelle tossed her hair, bored. “Kill it, Jace,” she said. “It’s not going to tell us anything.”

Shrugging, he raised his weapon.

The demon gasped. “Valentine is back!” it protested, thrashing against its binding. “All the Infernal Worlds know it—I know it—I can tell you where he is—”

“By the Angel,” Jace growled, “every time we capture one of you bastards, you claim you know where Valentine is. Well, we know where he is too. He’s in hell. And you–” He turned the seraph blade in his grasp. “You can meet him there.”

“Stop!”

Jace whirled, blade falling from his loosened fingers, to see a red-haired girl staring directly at him. The girl was small, fragile looking, and he knew immediately that she posed no physical threat. She must have been hiding behind that pillar.

“What’s this?” Alec demanded, so very obviously bewildered by the strange turn of events and uncertain how to proceed.

Even the demon seemed thrown.

Jace quickly recovered his composure. “It’s a girl,” he said flatly. “You’ve seen girls before, Alec. Your sister Isabelle is one.” He stepped closer to the girl. “A mundie girl.” Though it was completely ridiculous and unfathomable. “And she can see us.”

“Of course I can see you,” the girl said. “I’m not blind, you know.”

Such a laughable declaration.

Jace bent down to retrieve his blade. “Oh, but you are,” he said, straightening up. “You just don’t know it.” He spared the mundane a glance. “You’d better get out of here, if you know what’s good for you.”

“I’m not going anywhere. If I do, you’ll kill him,” she said, pointing at the demon.

“That true,” Jace admitted. He twirled his seraph blade between his fingers nonchalantly. “What do you care if I kill him or not?”

The mundane girl sputtered, cheeks coloring. “Be-because! You can’t just go around killing people!”

“Your right. You can’t go around killing people.” He gestured with his blade to the demon. “That’s not a person, little girl,” he said condescendingly. “It may look like a person and talk like a person and maybe even bleed like a person. But it’s a monster.”

“That’s enough, Jace,” Isabelle said warningly.

He frowned. _Why?_ The girl had already seen too much. What more could it hurt if he told her the truth?

“You’re crazy,” the girl said, backing away from them, fear pinching her pretty face. She looked like a cornered animal – desperate and confused. Jace watched her closely. Desperate people did equally desperate things. “I’ve called the police, you know,” she said. Jace silently congratulated her on being able to keep her voice steady. “They’ll be here any second.”

“She’s lying,” Alec said firmly, and though Jace was certain of that – he could read the lie on the girl’s face – he could tell Alec wasn’t entirely sure. Alec was always mindful of the “what ifs” and “just in case’s.”

Alec opened his mouth to say more, but Jace only heard the sound of his name and the beginnings of a question before the demon they had all neglected suddenly let out a battle cry, tearing free of its restraints and tackling Jace to the ground. The next moment, he was fending off sharp claws. Unable to grab his seraph blade under the assault, Jace threw up an arm to protect himself and felt the claws rake through his flesh.

Isabelle’s whip struck the demon across the back and it recoiled, giving Jace enough time to roll away and draw his weapon. He thrust the knife into the demon’s chest, ichor exploding around the hilt. The demon gurgled, arching off the ground, contorting in pain. Jace stood, grimacing at the sting of his wounds. He watched the demon squirm and then reached down and yanked his blade out.

The demon’s eyes flicked open to stare at Jace. Between clenched teeth, it hissed, “So be it. The Forsaken will take you all.”

Jace snarled at the dying thing.

The demon’s body jerked and twitched, shriveling up until it became nothing.

Alec was suddenly by Jace’s side, taking his wounded arm and pulling at his sleeve. Jace let Alec fondle him, until he noticed that Isabelle had the red-haired mundane restrained, her whip wrapped around the girl’s thin wrist. Jace withdrew his arm from Alec and began picking his way across the cable-strewn floor.

“He’s crazy. You’re all crazy.” The girl struggled. “What do you think you are, vigilante killers? The police–”

“The police aren’t usually interested unless you can produce a body,” he said, gaining the mundane’s attention.

The girl glanced at the spot the demon had been. Jace watched her face as the realization dawned that he was right. Even if she told the police, they wouldn’t believe her. There was no evidence.

“They return to their home dimensions when they die,” he said flippantly. “In case you were wondering.”

Alec grabbed him by the upper arm. “Jace,” he hissed. “Be careful.”

Jace shrugged off Alec’s touch – not unkindly. “She can see us, Alec,” he pointed out, because apparently it needed to be said again. “She already knows too much.”

“So what do you want me to do with her?” Isabelle demanded. She was loose with her anger and would no doubt take it out on the ignorant mundane if allowed.

“Let her go,” Jace said quietly.

Isabelle shot him a scandalized look, but obeyed. The whip fell away, allowing the girl to rub at her reddened flesh.

Alec gave the mundane a considering look. “Maybe we should bring her back with us. I bet Hodge would like to talk to her.”

“No way are we bringing her to the Institute,” Isabelle protested. “She’s a mundie.”

Jace wasn’t so sure. “Or is she?” He ignored his siblings’ incredulous looks, his attention on the strange mundane girl. “Have you had dealings with demons, little girl?” he asked. “Walked with warlocks, talked with the Night Children? Have you–”

“My name is not ‘little girl,’” she interrupted, irritated. “And I have no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t believe in—in demons, or whatever you–”

“Clary?”

The girl spun around and Jace looked passed her at the boy standing in the doorway. One of the club’s bouncers was hovering at the boy’s shoulder.

“What are you doing?” the boy asked.

The red-haired girl stared at her friend for a long moment, then glanced back at Jace and his siblings. Jace grinned and offered a shrug, not at all apologetic. The girl seemed to realize the situation she was in. She faced her friend and the expectant bouncer, who was looking more annoyed by the second.

They couldn’t see what she could.

“I’m sorry,” she said lamely. “I thought I saw someone go in here, but I guess they didn’t. It was a mistake.”

Isabelle giggled and Jace smirked. The girl sounded pathetic, really, and the bouncer looked like he had a very nice insult on the tip of his tongue. The boy, though, merely blinked, then turned to the bouncer and murmured quietly, too low for the rest of them to hear. The burly man huffed and shuffled away, but not without one last scathing look directed the red-haired girl.

“I’m really sorry,” the girl told her friend when the bouncer left. “I didn’t mean to–”

“Clary, who were you talking to before I got here?”

She paled even more. “I wasn’t—I just—I was–”

“Clary,” he said her name slowly. “ _Who_ were you talking to?”

“I wasn’t,” she insisted.

He glanced around the storage room before walking inside, easily stepping over the clutter. “Don’t lie to me,” he said, pausing next to her. “I saw you.”

“It’s nothing, Matt.” She sounded resigned.

Jace got the sudden feeling that the girl’s friend might not accept her denials as easily as the bouncer. For some reason, this made him oddly anxious and he chastised himself. It wasn’t like the boy could see them. There was nothing the boy do. He was only a mundane – a mundane who was peering through the darkness as if he thought there was something lingering in the shadows.

“We should go,” Alec said softly.

Jace noticed his parabatai stiffen when the mundane’s gaze passed over him, and he scoffed, loudly. The red-haired girl glanced back at him, curious and surprised, and the boy tracked her line of sight, eyes falling unseeingly on Jace.

“What are you so worried about?” Jace asked Alec. “He can’t see us.”

To prove his point, he moved forward and waved his hand in front of the boy’s face, only to be surprised when the boy drew back as if burnt. Bright gray eyes fixed on Jace, staring, and for a moment Jace could have sworn the mundane boy _saw_ him.

He was suddenly struck by how those intelligent gray eyes seemed to gleam in the low lighting.

“Matt?” the mundane girl said uncertainly.

The boy glanced suspiciously around the storage room. His gaze ultimately returned to Jace’s general location. Jace didn’t dare move, lest he alert the boy to his position once more, because while it was clear the mundane boy couldn’t see any of them, he could sense that someone was there – a feat that could only have been attributed to instinct.

Those eyes stared straight through Jace, and Jace stared back – unable to look away.

Finally, the boy spoke again, voice careful and quiet and forceful all at the same time, tone hinting at something fierce hidden underneath his calm. “Let’s go, Clary.” But the boy didn’t move and neither did she. He tore his gaze away from the shadows. “Now.”

Jace felt the loss of the boy’s eyes immediately and watched as the boy pressed the girl out of the room, closing the door behind him. It wasn’t until Alec placed a hand on his shoulder that Jace let out a shuddering breath.

“By the Angel…”


End file.
